FAQ

FAQs

General

What is Discovering Space?

Discovering Space is a breath-taking space exploration experience, designed from the ground up for virtual reality.

How can I get Discovering Space ?

Discovering Space 2 is now available for the Oculus Rift from Oculus Home and for the HTC Vive from Steam

What can I expect to see ?

Within Discovering Space, you can take yourself to anywhere in the Solar System. You can view the planets and moons from a distance, close orbit, or you can travel down through their atmospheres to within touching distance of the surface.

You can choose from a selection of ships, and fly yourself and explore at your own pace; or take a guided narrated tour through some key locations within the Solar System.

Will there be any additional content ?

Yes, additional content, such as new tours, new points of interest and new game features, will be gradually added over time, and will be included as part of the normal background update process through Oculus Home and Steam.

What is the differences between tour mode and free flight ?

Free flight enables you to take off from a space station in high Earth orbit, and travel on to any part of the Solar System. However, space is big, and travelling between planets can take a long time. To help this, you can use the network of jump gates that are dotted around each planet. These allow for rapid jumping between points.

Tour mode allows you to sit back and relax. The computer flies the ship and takes you on a preset tour. Along the way, the narration ensures you get the best views and informs you of what you are seeing.

Can I see my house ?

Within Discovering Space, planets, moons and celestial bodies are best viewed from low orbit, or high up in their atmosphere. There are some exceptions where low altitude flight is encouraged – such as the Apollo 11 landing site or Gale crater on Mars. Additional local surface detail will be added over time.

Hardware

What hardware do I need ?

This game has been designed to run smoothly on a “VR ready” PC, but anything meeting the following specs will suffice…

CPU: Intel i5 or higher,

RAM: 8Gb+

GFX: NVidia GTX 970 or higher.

Windows 7 or higher.

Most importantly, you will need a VR headset and a controller.

Headsets currently supported

the Oculus Rift and Rift DK2 virtual reality headsets, together with the bundled Xbox controller and Oculus Remote.

HTC Vive with the bundled wand controllers and the Xbox controller for the PC.

Open VR headsets supported, but not tested… please contact us if you have problems on this hardware.

If I have higher spec hardware, can I increase the details ?

Yes. Although the game has been designed to run on the reference hardware, with most of the options switched on, you can increase your graphical display quality by increasing the following.

Render-scaling. Default = 1.0. Higher values will improve the crispness of textures and overall level of sharpness. Running on a GTX1080 should enable you to run at a render scaling of 1.5 or above.

Anti-Aliasing. Default = 0 (off). Setting this to 2x, 4x or even 8x will smooth jagged edges. It is less demanding on hardware than render-scaling, but it does not increase texture detail and therefore its visual impact is left.

When adjusting any of these options, please keep an eye on the FPS counter on your display console. Try to keep it running at 90fps. If you fall below 90fps, the counter will turn red. Although, the Oculus display drivers will compensate to keep the display and head-tracking smooth, you will notice some stuttering and judder during ship manouevres. Ultimately it is your choice to trade quality over smoothness.

If I have lower spec hardware, can I reduce the details ?

Yes. The most effective way of acheiving this is with the “Quality” setting.

What game controllers are supported ?

Discovering Space currently supports the controllers that are bundled with the Oculus Rift headset. Ie. Xbox One Controller, and Oculus Remote, and the bundled controllers with the HTC Vive. It is possible to mix ‘n’ match, but results may vary.

Does this work on anything except the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive ?

Oculus Rift CV1, Rift DK2, and HTC are supported. At this time, other headsets (OpenVR) are not supported. Support for additional headsets will be added if demand dictates … please contact us if you would like to trial different hardware.

Support

Does the standard EULA of Discovering Space permit the use of the game at events, arcades, malls, public centers, or for any commercial applications ?

No. For such uses and for any other promotional, commercial or professional purposes, please contact us here

What is the privacy policy ?

I’m having some issues with the game and I need support: how can I get it ?

If you cannot find a solution to your problem within these notes, please contact us here

Is there support for languages other than English ?

Not at this time. Once the content is stable and the tours are complete, these will be translated. If you wish to offer some help in translation, please contact us.

Can I use my Oculus “Touch” or HTC Vive controllers ?

Yes. Basic support has been added. Please see the bottom of this page for basic flight controls.

My controller doesn’t work !

Discovering Space currently supports the controllers that are bundled with the Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive headsets ie. Xbox One Controller, and Oculus Remote, HTC wands as well as Oculus Touch controllers.

Some users have reported issues with the throttle control.

Make sure you have updated to the latest controller drivers relevant to your current OS.

Make sure the Discovering Space window has focus. If any other apps have focus then the controller will not respond in game.